Indie Filmakers Shoot Film Using AJA CION Production Cameras

Indie feature "The Great American Movie Hustle" follows filmmaker Michael Anton and actor Michael Monsour as they attempt to create a cinematic film about making a cinematic film.

Along the way, the duo encounters several twists and turns that mirror common production challenges filmmakers face today. Produced by Wonder Lab Films and directed by Michael Anton, the parody is presented in a mockumentary format rife with old-school humor. To achieve a distinct cinematic aesthetic for the film, Anton brought Doug Michaels on board as cinematographer, who shot the film using AJA CION production cameras.

"I wanted to get CION in the field to see what it's really capable of, and our experience was great; it's easy to control and manipulate," Michaels said. "CION is one of the most intuitive, easy-to-use cameras I've ever worked with; it gives you all the functionality you need without the clutter of a million buttons. It's not only a great camera for filmmaking, but I could also see it being an awesome tool for scripted and commercial work too."

Michaels leveraged CION to capture footage for the film, and as an on-camera prop used by characters Anton and Monsour in behind-the-scenes sequences. Scenes that represent the 'mockumentary' segments with the CION in frame were captured on Canon C300 HD cameras. Opting for a run-and-gun style, much of the film was shot handheld with CION. All of the material was captured in ProRes 444 at 4K 24fps, transitioning to ProRes 422 at 4K 60fps for action scenes that called for a slo-mo effect. The CIONs were configured for handheld, shoulder mount setups, with a Zacuto Z-Finder viewfinder, MTF lens adapter and Zeiss Nikon mount lenses in 14mm, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm..

The camera was also easily setup for Steadicam work, a natural fit given the lightweight construction of CION, to capture several of the action scenes. Everything was recorded straight to AJA's Pak SSD media and backed up to RAID hard drives after each day of shooting. The project from start to finish went very smoothly.

Despite the challenges of transitioning between cinematic and documentary sequences, Michaels and his crew found CION to be totally versatile throughout.

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